There are so many things that our body does that we take for granted.  We never ever consider how the food we consume is digested and processed or how our body produces and absorbs vitamins.  I met a little girl today named Taonga who really made me pause and think.

Three-and-a-half-year-old Taonga was born in a town called Luanshya in Zambia’s Copperbelt province, just a short drive away from the Congolese border.  “Taonga was born completely normal and was developing normally until she turned one and a half,” said Taonga’s mother, Ailedy.  At about 1 year 7 months, Ailedy started to notice that her little girl was walking with a limp.  After two weeks of watching her daughter’s gait change, Ailedy took Taonga to the Arthur Davis Children’s Hospital in Ndola, the largest city in the Copperbelt province.  It was at this hospital that Taonga was diagnosed with a terrible disease called rickets. Read the rest of this entry »